We always suggest that you slash your ridiculous cable subscription fees when you first start trying to save more money. The only hard part is figuring out how to still watch TV without cable or satellite service once you’ve cut the cord.
Dannie and I took this approach at the beginning of our financial journey and we want to share how we’ve been able to keep up with all of our favorite shows since then!
Making the choice to get rid of cable was EASY for us. Once we sat down to assess our financial situation and create our first budget, we realized that we were spending almost $90 per MONTH for cable TV.
Ninety.
Dollars.
It seemed ridiculous to us at the time, but it turns out that what we were paying was actually pretty normal. In 2016 alone, the average cable TV cost was just around $103. As these prices have continued to rise, millions of people have started cutting the cord and finding ways to watch TV without cable subscriptions!
1. Watch TV Online
First of all, can we just thank GOD for the internet? The world-wide-web makes it extremely easy to cut the cord and never look back. Here are just a few ways to watch TV without cable over the internet:
Hulu
We realized that we didn’t even watch the majority of the channels we were paying for with our cable subscription. Hulu is our favorite online streaming option because their selection of shows is amazing (we especially love the Shondaland line-up).
Hulu makes it easy to watch TV on demand and you get to choose whether you’re willing to sit through commercials. You can even get $25 cash-back from your subscription through Ebates right now!
There are currently 3 packages available for Hulu:
- Limited Commercials – $7.99/month
- No Commercials – $11.99/month
- Hulu Live TV – $39.99/month (it’s the limited commercials plan + 50ish live TV channels)
- Add HBO, Showtime, & Cinemax for an added fee
*Get 30 days of Hulu for FREE!*
No smart TV? No problem! Easily stream to your dumb TV by using an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku device, PS4, Xbox, Google Chromecast, or Apple TV!
Netflix
Netflix is another streaming service that is popular for good reasons. They also have a gigantic selection of movies, TV shows, documentaries, and original content. To be honest, we love their original content the most out of everything that they offer (Stranger Things, Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, and the list goes on and on)!
They currently have 3 packages available:
- Basic – $7.99/month (stream on 1 device at a time in SD quality)
- Standard – $10.99/month (stream on 2 devices at a time in HD quality)
- Premium – $13.99/month (stream on 4 devices at a time in Ultra HD quality)
No smart TV? No problem! Easily stream to your dumb TV by using an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku device, PS4, Xbox, Google Chromecast, or Apple TV!
Amazon Prime Video
We swear by our Amazon Prime subscription for a variety of reasons. One of them is the fact that Amazon Prime Video is included! If you take a look at their website and decide that you want to try them out, we suggest going for their $119 yearly plan.
Why?
Well, if we do some quick math you’ll see that the yearly option is actually better than all the other choices:
- Amazon Prime Yearly – $9.92/month ($119/yr – paid up front)
- Prime Video Only – $8.99/month ($107.88/yr)
- Amazon Prime Monthly – $12.99/month ($155.88/yr)
The $119 may sting at first because it’s paid all at once, but as you can see, it’s better than the other options because you get ALL of the great Amazon Prime benefits for just a few dollars more than paying for the video service alone!
No smart TV? No problem! Easily stream to your dumb TV by using an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku device, PS4, Xbox, Google Chromecast, or Apple TV!
Sling TV
This is one choice we’ll mention (even though we haven’t actually used it) simply because we heavily considered it. Sling TV gives you the ability to watch live TV online. It seems like an awesome service because you get a lot of great channels for only $25 per month.
If you check out their channel line-up and realize that some of your favorites are missing, you can even add more packages for about $5!
The only reason we ended up not grabbing this service is because we chose to get our live TV stations through an HDTV antenna instead (more on that later).
- 25+ channels – $20
- 40+ channels – $25
- 50+ channels – $40
- You can add even more channels by purchasing their extra packages for as little as $5!
No smart TV? No problem! Easily stream to your dumb TV by using an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku device, PS4, Xbox, Google Chromecast, or Apple TV!
Youtube.TV, ABC, NBC, CBS, CW Apps
Basically, the rest of the internet.
YouTube has a live TV streaming service now and most TV stations have their own dedicated apps and websites available for you to watch their content.
You’ll have to check the apps you want to watch because some of them still need a valid login from a cable provider (which kinda defeats the purpose). The cord cutter friendly networks will just allow you to watch TV online for free with no strings attached. We catch our Amazing Race episodes on the CBS website and then complain about ABC’s lack of support for anyone without a login.
Either way, if it’s aired on tv, you can probably find it somewhere online (just ask the folks in the /r/CordCutters Reddit thread).
2. Watch Local TV For FREE
Remember the rabbit ear antennas that used to sit on top of our TVs? Thank goodness we don’t have to fiddle with the position of those anymore or add tinfoil to increase their range.
These days, you can get indoor antennas that sit on your TV stand, hang on the wall, or sit in the window. Check websites like antennaweb.org to see what channels you can get over the air (OTA). Depending on your location you might get quite a few.
The best part is that most TV stations broadcast in high-definition now. That means you can use an HDTV antenna to watch TV without cable and you don’t have to give up the quality you’d expect from cable or online programming.
You can also get an outdoor antenna that will significantly increase your range and make it possible for you to receive even more channels. We never considered this option though, because Dannie doesn’t particularly like it when I use the ladder (I’m clumsy)!
*This is the antenna we ended up getting: GE UltraPro Bar HD
3. Make Your Current Cable Cheaper
Are you really attached to your cable? If so, I’m going to tell you a secret that you may not be aware of:
You can convince your cable company to lower your bill. You’ll need to have 15 – 20 minutes to spare and you’ll also have to be willing to fail because this doesn’t always work.
Cable companies typically have great deals that are only available for new subscribers. We once found out that if you call customer service and complain about how high your service is they can actually apply those same discounts to your account even though you’re already a customer.
When you ask the agent if they can apply any discounts to your account and they say they can’t, mention that you’re considering going to a different cable company to take advantage of THEIR specials. This will pretty much force the agent to transfer you to their “customer retention department”.
Or what I like to call, The Please Don’t Leave Us Because We Still Want Your Money – department.
Most likely, the person you speak to in that department will be more than willing to give you what you want:
DISCOUNTS!
These discounts might be valid for 6 – 12 months, it just depends on what they feel like giving you. The truly crazy part is, you can do this repeatedly. Cable companies don’t care as long as they get to keep you as a paying customer.
“But Dj, why doesn’t everyone do this?”
The answer to that is simple:
Cable companies bank on the fact that most people will never find out about this and the ones that find out won’t have the patience to even try it.
Therefore, the majority of their customers will pay full price once their new-customer discounts end.
Listen, I can be as patient as possible if it’ll save me some money in the long run!
Side note: If you decide to take this route, please be nice to the agents. I used to work in a call center so I know that they don’t have the unlimited power we often imagine that they have, so don’t take your frustrations out on them.
How We Watch TV Without Cable
We save almost $1,000 per year because of the setup we use to watch TV without cable or satellite subscriptions. Our setup currently consists of Hulu, Amazon video, and an indoor HDTV antenna. We’re able to watch all of our favorites shows, local TV stations and we can catch pretty much all the games during football season (Dannie LOVES football so that is a must).
Another part of our setup involves Netflix. We recently switched our phone service over to T-Mobile (because they’re awesome) and they give us a FREE Netflix subscription with our plan ($120 value). We LOVE freebies!!
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I hope you enjoyed this. There is a LOT of information here so make sure that you come back to it later if you decide that you want to try any of my tips out for yourself.
As always, make sure you let us know if this helps you out at all!
$tay Wealthy Friends
–Dj
Have you ever considered cutting the cord or are you still attached to your cable service?
Tell us about your current setup in the comments below!
I have Netflix, Hulu, and amazon prime. I need to really check out prime video and use it! I also love football and either watch it at a friends, go to a bar/restaurant, or if it’s a home game I have season tickets so I’m at the game :). Great post! Definitely no point in paying $90+ for cable anymore.
Dannie really wants to get season tickets for a team. That’s something we are going to have to work on for sure! And you’re definitely right about not paying 90 bucks for cable anymore, that is the absolute worst! Thanks for reading!!